How to Make Homemade Ravioli the Prepper Way

One of the dishes that my family loves to eat is ravioli. In fact, we used to eat canned ravioli quite a bit (yes, I know it’s pretty gross). But, when we started to look for healthier meal ideas (and I found a pasta roller), I started to make our own ravioli.

It’s pretty easy, and a whole lot of fun. Following is the recipe I came up with.

Step 1: How To Make the Noodles

Each cup of flour will produce about 1/2 a pound of finished noodle. We typically need about ½ of a pound of noodles for our family of four, so adjust the recipe to whatever fits for your family.

Use the following noodle recipe base (makes appx. 1/2 pound):

1 1/2 cups flour

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon olive oil

Pinch of salt

The little well keeps the egg from rolling away. Photo by Brenda D Priddy

Dump your flour onto the cutting board. Make a little well in the center of the flour.
Place the egg, oil, and salt in the well. Use a fork to start stirring the egg mixture into the flour. Maintain the well shape as long as possible.

When the dough becomes too stiff to work with a fork, use your hands to form the dough into a ball. You may have some flour left over, but you may also need to add a bit more.

Knead the dough until it is firm and smooth. A dent of your finger should cause the dough to spring back when it is the perfect consistency (usually, mine ends up a bit too hard).

Rub a bit of olive oil on the surface of the dough ball. Wrap it in plastic and let it rest on the counter for about 30 minutes before rolling out. I usually use the resting time to make my fillings.

Step 2: Prepare the Filling

Meat Filling

Dice one onion. Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a pan and cook the onions on medium heat until they soften. Add your meat and spices (fresh is always better, when possible). When the ground beef is completely brown, drain any excess fat and set the filling aside

Allow the filling to cool for about 15 minutes before filling the ravioli pieces. It works better if the filling is a little bit cold.

Mix about 1 cup of ricotta cheese with salt, pepper, and any other spices or herbs you want to add. We like using fresh basil, rosemary, and oregano.

When the cheese and spices are mixed, add one egg to the mixture and combine.

Step 3: Shape the Noodles

The little dough ball rests to make it stretch and prevent tearing. Photo by Brenda D Priddy

When the dough has rested, divide it into small balls about the size of a cake pop. Flatten these out as much as you can by hand then roll them into a rectangle shape with your hands or a rolling pin.

Feed the rectangle through the pasta machine starting from the largest setting and working down to the smallest setting. My roller has 7 notches, so we feed our dough through 5-7 times (sometimes you can cheat and skip a notch).

You will end up with a long ribbon of dough. We put ours on cookie sheets to rest. If you have made the dough right, it shouldn’t stick to anything so you can fold it lightly. Otherwise, just cut it into manageable pieces and lay them flat.

Rolling the dough is a favorite activity for kids. Photo by Brenda D Priddy

Step 4: Fill the Squares

I found this was the hardest part, but I got the hang of it after a while.

Spoon your filling onto the bottom piece leaving about ¼ to ½ an inch of space on all sides.

Put the top filling piece in place and press the edges together with a fork (sometimes fingers work better).

Repeat until finished.

The pieces do not have to be perfect. Photo by Brenda D Priddy

Step 5: Boil the Raviloi

Boil a large pot of water.

Drop the filled ravioli pieces into the pot one at a time until the surface area of the water is filled.

Let the noodles boil for about 2 minutes (longer if you like really soft noodles) then strain them with a colander.

Add your desired sauce and serve!

Prepper-Style Homemade Ravioli

Making homemade ravioli isn’t difficult, but it does take time. When we make it, I like to make a large batch that will produce 3-5 meals and freeze the rest for later before I cook them. You could also try canning the boiled noodles.

When cooking from frozen, boil the ravioli pieces for about 10 minutes.

Have you ever made homemade ravioli or homemade noodles? How did they turn out?

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Comments

Beverlysays

Thank you for sharing you homemade ravioli recipe on Snickerdoodle Sunday. Pinned and Tweeted. My husband would love for me to make this for him, it’s one of his favorite dishes.